Free? Denied!

[BookBint]

Just got rung up by a random man. God knows why the call got transferred to me, I blame our heavily pregnant receptionist. Normally an amazingly competent woman, over the last couple of months her hormones have made her brain rather mushy. I overheard her calling a commissioning editor 'Carl'. The editor's name is Susan. But I digress.

This man annoyed me from the get go, mostly because of his wheedling kiss-ass voice and nasal intonation. He asked if we had book X in stock. Since I was feeling nice I went on the sales system, even though I don't deal with sales at all, and found that, yes, we had some. I tell him this and he asks the price. The words '£18.99' had barely escaped my lips when he started doing big sighs, oohing and aahing about how much that was. This was a 320 page hardback with a 32 page colour picture section. A fricking snip at £18.99. I just say the price again.

SC: Are you sure you can't do me a deal?
BB: I'm afraid I'm not in the sales department so don't have the authority to do any kind of discount, and they are usually reserved for bookshops and wholesalers anyway.
SC: Well, I was going to buy [set of 5 paperbacks on trains, sold at £30.00 together]...
BB: Okay...
SC: Tell you what, I'll order the set and perhaps I could get the other book with them?
BB: Okay, that would be £48.99, I'll transfer you to the sales-
SC: No, no. That would be £30.00!
BB: What?
SC: The other book would be free. Like, buy one get one free.
BB: I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible. We would lose money.
SC: Well, do you have a copy of it? Because you could just send it me to and no one would know. I really want to read it and I'd be back to buy more books.
BB: You want me to steal a company book and post it to you, at the company's expense, on the offchance you come back and buy more books?
SC: Well I am a long-time customer-
BB: I'm afraid I have work to do. Try the sales department.

Seriously, if he wanted to save money and shaft a publishing company, he should have just gone on Amazon. They demand a 55-60% discount when buying from us. That's why the books are so cheap, kiddies. Evil Amazon keeps Bookbint's wages low.

[Sapphire Silk]

I suppose it didn't occur to him to try the public library, if he wanted it free?

[BowserKoopa1]

I have just posted a story about the exact same thing, customers wanting something for free. Its entitled, "Scam artist complains on me when I refuse to give her free stuff".
2 girls came into my theatre and up to my stand wanting free food, claiming to know "J" who used to work here and that its ok to give them free food, or maybe a discount. After calling a manager over and politely trying to explain to them that I couldn't, they were still very persistent.
Well, I finally got irritated and told her, "Look, you're not getting anything for free! I'm not going to get into trouble for you!" to which she replied "Oh, you're so rude! Your customer service skills suck! I'm calling Corporate!"
Yeah, my customer service skills suck because you keep bugging the living shit out of me to do something that I know to be illegal and can possibly cost me my job. But what the fuck do you care if that happens?! Just so long as you can get some free popcorn and soda, you stupid fucking bitch!
The boss saw things my way and did not write me up but did simply tell me that I had to control myself a bit better.
Me-1 Teenage Bitch- 0

[chainedbarista]

hooray for bowser!

if you're too cheap to pay the posted price, gtfo.

[underemployeed]

Well I have found disgruntled employees who either can't be fired or don't give a shit if they get fired are more likely to screw the company. Ie, they will just give away free shit or if they notice ah shit I forget to ring something up oh well I don't want to make a scene and offend the customer because it is a 99 cent item.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Seriously, if he wanted to save money and shaft a publishing company, he should have just gone on Amazon. They demand a 55-60% discount when buying from us. That's why the books are so cheap, kiddies. Evil Amazon keeps Bookbint's wages low.

That's the Wal-mart conundrum at work. Amazon might shaft publishers but they sell so many books you sometimes have almost have no choice but to deal with the devil or go out of business.

[Mike Taylor]

That's the Wal-mart conundrum at work. Amazon might shaft publishers but they sell so many books you sometimes have almost have no choice but to deal with the devil or go out of business.

Not necessarily so. Amazon has pissed off a couple of publishers so badly that the only way Amazon can carry their books is by buying through a distributor. Wal-mart, on the other hand, can drive a company out of business even IF said business chooses to deal with them. Both are notorious "slow pay" accounts.

[ralerin]

Hm, what about buying a used book from a independent bookseller on Amazon? I avoid buying new books from them if I can help it, same with CDs. Most of the time I can find the books/CDs for cheaper on ebay, used.